by Riley Storm
She laughed, feeling some of the tension leave her.
“Can I ask you something?” she said after.
“Of course.”
Silence reigned for a minute, broken only by the frequent, powerful flapping of his wings.
Now isn’t that an interesting sentence. Rann has wings.
“What happened today? Did I do something wrong? Besides what I said about wishing you hadn’t met my parents? Which, by the way, you did probably handle as well as I could have hoped for, once it had to happen.”
Rann was silent. Tiny scales shifted on his face as his muscles worked underneath the protective layer. She could see him having a hard time with whatever it was, but maybe now that they had already started a serious conversation, he would be able to open up. To tell her what was bothering him.
“I don’t know,” he said at last.
She knew that wasn’t the full truth, but the heaviness of his tone told her that even getting that much out had been a struggle. There was a lot she wanted to say, but instead Gayle forced herself to remain quiet. To give Rann more time to speak his feelings.
“How do you feel about it?” he blurted out at last, speaking so fast she had to replay it several times in her head to figure it out.
“About what?” she asked curiously. “You meeting my parents?”
Rann shook his head.
Gayle frowned. What was he getting at? How did she feel about what? There was nothing that they’d done for him to be confused over. Did he mean about himself?
She stiffened in sudden understanding.
“You mean about you being a dragon,” she said quietly, the wind whipping the words away.
Rann’s arms tightened ever so imperceptibly around her, and she felt that sensation ripple through the rest of his body. She glanced up. His head moved a fraction up and down.
“I think…I think…” she said, then paused to do just that, to think.
“It’s okay,” Rann said, interpreting her silence for something else. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not for everyone.”
“I think everything has happened so fast,” she said, ignoring him. “That I haven’t really had a chance to think about it. I have a lot of questions. But it’s been what, two months now since your existence was revealed?”
“About that,” he replied.
“I admit, I never expected that I would ever meet one of you, let alone sleep with one. But other than some embarrassment—which is related to you, not the fact that you’re a dragon—I don’t think I have anything negative to say. You saved me earlier today from that mob.”
Rann snorted angrily. “I’m the reason that mob was after you in the first place,” he corrected hotly. “Without me, you’d have been perfectly fine. They’d never have noticed your existence.”
“Maybe,” she said, forced to agree. “But you never hesitated to help me, to save me. So thank you for that.”
“It doesn’t bother you that I’m not human?”
“Some humans dress up in animal costumes and find love just fine,” she said. “Your form happens to be real, not a costume. I don’t see why I should let that stop me from treating you like any other human. You certainly look the part most of the time. And act it.”
“You’re not scared of me?”
“Not unless we get stuck in a situation where we need to silently sneak out of a window,” she snickered, hoping to inject some levity into the conversation, to truly show Rann that she wasn’t bothered by the slightest at his revelation.
Rann pouted, but she saw his dragon-y lips quirk upward. “There was a rose bush! Those things hurt. You should have warned me.”
“Big bad dragon with scales, and he’s hurt by a little itsy bitsy plant?” she teased.
Rann glared at her, and despite him having yellowed eyes with very inhuman pupils, and a face covered in red scales, Gayle smiled broadly and laughed, completely at ease.
And she didn’t have to fake any of it.
“I really am sorry about what I said earlier,” she added, steering the conversation back to that. “It’s not that I’m ashamed of you to the point I don’t want you ever meeting my parents. That’s not it all, and I hope you know that. It’s more that it was all so soon. I wasn’t ready for it. I’ve been single for less than a week, and I had my heart broken. If I’m scared of anything, Rann, it’s not taking some time to myself to ensure I properly get over it.”
Rann nodded. “I understand.”
“Do you?” she asked, deciding that it would perhaps be best if he knew everything, if she opened up to him so he could understand what was going on in her mind. “Like fully, I mean. I know you’re aware of how I was dumped and the circumstances surrounding that, which are enough to mess anyone up. But are you aware that I quit my job this morning?”
“You what?” Rann barked.
“Yep. Haven’t told anyone yet. Gave them my two weeks, but I don’t expect them to keep me on for the entire thing. But Rann, ever since Mikey and Karen dropped that bomb on me, I’ve been feeling so lost. I applied to a paid position with Balance the Scales, but I don’t actually know what I’m going to do next. All I know is, it won’t be in a cubicle.”
The dragon-man nodded calmly. “That doesn’t seem like a good fit for you.”
“It’s not,” she agreed. “But I’m just lost. I don’t know where I am in life, I don’t know where I’m going. How can I handle a relationship at this point in time? I can’t commit to anything.”
Rann was quiet for a long time as he processed that information.
“I don’t want to rush you,” he said quietly at last. “And that’s what you’re feeling right now, rushed. If you want to take things slower, that’s fine too. Whatever you need, I will do, but I’m not going to stay silent and pretend like I don’t care for you either. I can’t do that.”
Gayle opened her mouth, but he wasn’t done, and he kept speaking, his head facing straight ahead the entire time.
“If you tell me you don’t want me, if you reject me, I will leave you alone. That I promise. But I won’t lie to you and pretend like it’s what I want. I won’t pretend to feel a way I don’t. And truthfully, I hope that you won’t either, simply because it hasn’t been ‘long enough’. That’s an arbitrary amount of time. There’s no set length someone has to be single. If you like me, I want you to admit it. If that makes sense.”
This time, she didn’t try to reply right away. He was telling her that if she truly did not care for him, he would go. Would leave her alone. But he was also calling her out, saying that if she did have feelings for him, she should own that, instead of pretending she didn’t simply so she could stay single for ‘the right amount of time’.
It was the most open and blunt that he’d gotten with her yet. Openly admitting to caring for her and saying he would no longer hide that fact.
How do I feel about him?
She didn’t know. Not entirely. There was just so much she didn’t know about him.
“Will you take me up the mountain?” she asked, not sure where the question came from, but knowing it was what she wanted to ask, nonetheless.
“What?” Rann asked, caught off-guard. “Why?”
“Because,” she said simply. “If I’m going to figure out where I stand, then I need to know more about you. About the real you. I’ve seen your lair. You’ve seen my house. But now I want to see where you live. I want to meet your family, those people most important to you. Everything has been about me so far. Now it needs to be about you, so that I can make an informed decision.”
Rann pondered that, then he shrugged, the motion bumping her slightly in his arms. Gayle yelped slightly and clutched tighter to him, her fingers closing around a bicep.
“We can do that,” Rann said, banking abruptly in mid-air, his arms holding her tight.
“Thank you,” she said, her arms snaking up to wrap around his neck as she cuddled in right close to him.
She stayed that way for the res
t of the flight. It felt good to be like that with him. Regardless of what form he took.
What am I going to find when we get to his home though, I wonder?
She was going to learn soon enough.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gayle
They had just landed when her stomach gurgled impossibly loudly.
Still in his arms, the last gust of wind from his wings still filtering out into the afternoon air, there was no escaping acknowledging it.
Great. The first thing I do upon seeing his place is get hungry. How typical.
“Hungry?” he joked.
“Maybe a bit,” she said, looking around.
They were on a gently sloping hillside that ran downhill from a sheer mountain cliffside and disappeared into a forest of trees below. Small cabin-like houses dotted the area in a shallow arc. At their center was a giant hole in the mountain.
“What’s that?” she asked, noting several figures walking out of the hole.
“That’s where we can go to get food,” he chuckled.
“Okay.” She didn’t understand.
“The cabins are our living areas. Our houses,” Rann explained as he set her down.
She pulled off his oversized sweatshirt that she’d put on for the journey and gave it to him to put on. It had kept her warm in the sky, but she didn’t understand how he wasn’t boiling now that they’d landed. Even up here on the mountain, it was a hot day.
“Right. I figured that,” she said.
“In there is Clan Atrox’s communal stuff. All our facilities. There’s a couple of bars, training gyms, library, meeting rooms and all that fun stuff. It’s all built into a massive cavern. You’ll see,” he said, eagerly tugging at her hand, leading her toward the opening.
Gayle laughed and followed along, enjoying seeing this side of Rann as he showed off his home to her. He was proud of his clan, that was obvious.
“So, where are we going then?” she asked.
“The Shaft,” he said and then elaborated as she scrunched up her face. “It’s a bar. They serve food, drinks, all that good stuff.”
“Oh thank god,” she said with obvious gratefulness. “A drink and some food sounds ah-maze-ing right now.”
She followed him into the cave opening, marveling at the size of it. The opening was huge, but the inside was even larger, spreading out wide in an oblong shape with a domed roof. There were multiple levels with ramps leading up and down. Tunnels disappeared deep into the mountain, while other openings had doors blocking them with signs posted indicating what lay within.
“This is your home?” she asked, looking around. “How many people live here?”
There were others in evidence. Other dragons, she assumed.
Rann frowned. “I think we’re closing in on seventy-five people now. One of the bigger clans, for sure.”
“Life up here must be so peaceful,” she said. “I love it.”
She turned to look back out the cave entrance. With the hill and mountain sloping away from them, she could see nothing but trees and mountains. The town of Five Peaks was off to her left somewhere, out of sight, but it didn’t matter. The view was incredible.
“Come on,” Rann said, taking her hand and leading her off to the right. They pushed through a door and into a bar that could have been located anywhere, were it not for the rock walls.
Wooden stools and tables dotted the inside, while TVs hung everywhere, displaying sports, news, and some movies. It was sparsely populated, no more than twelve people there, but when she thought about it, that was a large percentage of the clan, all gathered in one spot.
Must be a popular place.
They sat down at a random table. Before they could order, another tall, muscular male came in, his face all scuffed up, his nose swollen, and traces of blood still on his cheeks.
“Beer me, Hoss,” he called to the bartender, his words slightly slurred by the nose.
Gayle stared for a moment then she focused on Rann. “That reminds me. Are you going to tell me now about all the mysterious things you’ve been up to? Like why you looked like you’d been in several fights?”
He regarded her for a moment, then nodded. “Very well. I suppose that’s the least I can do. The fights, which is exactly what they were, are part of an organized tournament to help us find a leader.”
“A leader?”
“Yes. We’ve been without one for over a year, since the last one was killed by another creature from the Otherworld. We’re lacking direction, so we’re going to find a new one. The fights are to determine who takes over.”
“Oh,” she said, taking that all in. “So you lost then? Is that why you were all scuffed up?”
Rann blinked repeatedly. Then he snorted. “Absolutely not. I won. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t take any blows during the match.”
“Right,” she said, knowing that it was going to take time for her to process everything she’d learned about him, dragons, vampires, and his world. But there was no sense in stopping the inquisition now. The more information she had, the better.
“Oh! And why did you smell like smoke when we first met? What was that all about?” she said, her brain bringing that memory up unexpectedly.
Rann shrugged. “I told you the truth. I flew out of a burning building. Well, exploding, more like it. But close enough.”
Gayle’s mouth dropped open. “What? Why?”
“We were out hunting vampires that night,” he growled. “We had been informed that they might be gathering there. So we went in. Turns out we were set up.”
“What?” she gasped.
“Yeah. But tonight we’re going to fix that,” he said, his lips peeling back.
“You are? What’s tonight?” she wanted to know, unsure of how she felt about the anger writ on his face.
“I found their hideout last night. Tonight, the team and I are going to go in and kill any vamps we find. Hopefully, all of them, so we can put this behind us,” he said, green fire flashing in his eyes.
“Boy, am I glad I’m not a vampire,” she said, shivering, trying to get her mind off that topic. She didn’t want to think about what other night terrors might be out there.
“Me too,” Rann agreed deadpan.
Gayle’s mouth worked as she tried to find words, but Rann just winked at her, and then his blank-faced façade cracked and he smiled wide. She joined him, but only for a moment.
“Is it…are you going to be okay?” she asked nervously, suddenly worried about how dangerous it was going to be for him tonight. “What if you…if you don’t come back?”
Rann sobered. “I will,” he said sharply then relaxed as she jerked. “I promise, Gayle. I’ll come back. Six of us are going out tonight. They have nothing that can take us on, I swear to you.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding uncertainly, knowing how quickly things could go wrong.
“Besides,” he added, his eyes softening, twinkling ever so slightly. “I have a very good reason to come back.”
“You do?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
“What’s that?” she asked, recognizing a prompt when she heard it.
“You owe me a date,” Rann said, and grinned broadly. “And you can’t get out of it this time.”
Gayle sat back and smiled. “No,” she said slowly. “I guess I can’t, now can I?”
The truth was though, she didn’t want to avoid it. Or him. Not anymore. Rann had called her out on having feelings for him, and despite her best efforts not to, Gayle was mature enough to admit that he was right.
She liked a dragon. And he liked her back.
So what happens next?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Gayle
She paced back and forth, fighting back the terror that threatened to overwhelm her.
“Where are you?” she asked the empty little cabin for what had to be the thousandth time. “Why aren’t you back yet?”
Glancing at the wall, she noted that less tha
n a minute had gone past since her last check. It still read the same: 3:29 a.m.
She’d kissed Rann at ten, when he and his team headed out. Over five hours ago, and they still weren’t back yet. How long did it take to burn down a nest of vampires? They should have been back already!
It’s taking too long. Something’s gone wrong.
Turning on a heel, she paced away from the door, fidgeting with her hands, shoulders hunched.
Should I go out there? Go try to find them? What if they need help? There are other dragons here. They could go find him, go help him! I should go find someone.
Decision made, she spun to the door—and came to an abrupt halt.
Standing in the open doorway was Rann. He looked fine. Completely unharmed.
“Oh, Rann!” she shouted and threw herself at him, overcome with relief that he was home alive and okay.
He wrapped her up in his arms, holding her tight, but she could immediately feel the tension and unease in him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, immediately worried. “Is everyone okay? Rann what happened?”
He sighed, and she heard the anger grating inside him. “It was empty. They were gone. We scoured the area, but there was nothing!”
Gayle frowned. “Well, crap.”
“Dammit,” he snapped in frustration. “I knew I should have done something about it the night before. I could have at least taken one of them out, if not more.”
“And probably hurt a bunch of humans in the process,” she reminded him. “Don’t forget about that.”
Rann glared, but it wasn’t directed at her. He was just frustrated that the bad guys had gotten away.
“You made the right decision, and you know it,” she said, rubbing his back. “You’ll get them again. It just won’t be tonight.”
“But in the meantime, they’ll keep hurting other people and creating more of their evil kind,” he grumped. “We’re not doing a very good job of protecting humanity if we let that happen.”
Gayle nodded. “Well, why don’t you go out hunting them during the day?”
“Sunlight kills them. They’ll be inside, resting. Nothing to help us find them. At night, at least, they’ll come out. We might get lucky, scent them, see them, something like that. During the day we’d find nothing.”